[pct-l] Post Trail Adjustment - a reply

[metam01 at earthlink.net (Monty Tam)]

> Anyone else have any comments on this thread besides
> Person X and myself?
>
 
Great thread Mags. 
I have a little experience and lots of success with this subject.
 
Depression or 
"Feel Bad" to >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> "Feel Good"
Thru-Hike Therapy
 
Almost every action a thru-hiker takes on the trail are treatments for
depression.
The list is endless, but here's a few:
 
#1................................. be active!!! (get off the couch)
How much inactive time does a thru-hiker have on the trail?
 
Get up early.
 
Get to bed early but not one hour after getting up.
 
Performing repetitive/menial tasks as a physical/meditative therapy.
"One foot in front of the other" is a common phrase in the field.
 
Exercise?............ Given
 
Simplify?.......... No bathroom is a good example ..... It's a Zen thing.
 
Remain focused on a goal and constantly take prioritized actions to acheive
that goal.
Make the plan....Do the plan.
 
Get involved with people of similar interests. Share the experience.
 
And (for the very selfish ends of feeling better) help others (would this
include hiking for charity? :) Not my hike, but Volunteering for
not-for-profit organizations is near the top of that list :) )
 
Eating HUGE amounts of food on Zeros is not included as a theraputic
method, but that can feel good too.
 
When a hike stops, treatment may also stop.
(Active? Focused? Helping others? Done? or replaced)
 
Warner Springs Monty
 
 

> [Original Message]
> From: Paul Magnanti <pmags@yahoo.com>
> To: PCT MailingList <pct-l@backcountry.net>
> Date: 12/28/2005 7:29:30 AM
> Subject: [pct-l] Post Trail Adjustment - a reply
>
> After my lengthy essay yesterday, received a reply.
>
> A couple of items peaked my interest.
>  It also made me write another long essay. You've be
> warned. :)
>
> First, I was surprised someone actually bothered to 
>
> wade through my lengthy rambling.
>
>
>
> Second, it was interesting to see their reply.
>
>
>
> Thought it added another dimension to the discussion.
>
>
>
> Since the person wrote me off list, I will only
>
> excerpt what the person wrote. If that person wishes
>
> to reply and add to the discussion on-list, then
> please do.
>
> If not...well, that is cool, too.
>
>
>
> Anyway, the person wrote:
>
>
> "It's always been my thoery that long-distance hikers
> are self-medicating for depression, which returns
> forcibly as soon as 
> the hike is over."
>
>
>
> As I was on my run last night (more of a slow plod,
> really),
>
> I was thinking. Do we, meaning long distance hikers,
> really
>
> self medicate? Are we nothing more than social
> misfits? People 
>
> addicted to an endorphin high? The only people we can
> relate to are other people
>  who also don't fit it; people who break the heart of
> kith and kin?
>
>
>
> There may be some truth  to that we "self
> medicate"...to an extent. 
>
> I think of myself. I was indeed mildly depressed after
> the PCT. (And
>
> I think had every right to de depressed after the AT.
> Parents divorcing,
>
> a lost home and a family pet deceased to boot should
> be a synopsis of a country music song..not the way to
> end a thru-hike! :D). But I got over it. The passage
>  of time. Continuing to be active. Being involved in a
> community I care about.
>
>
>
> At this point I should be content in my life. I have a
> job that I enjoy.
>
> Great friendsin Boulder who I love like my family. 
> Find something challenging  and rewarding to do almost
> every weekend. But I need more. Why?
>
>
>
> Think it is common for some people to want this
> roaming in their life.
>
> Steinbeck said it best in TRAVELS WITH CHARLIE:
>
>
>
> "When I was very young and the urge to be someplace
> else was on me, I was assured by mature people  that
> maturity would cure this itch. When the years
> described me as mature, the rememdy perscribed was
> middle age.
>
> In middle age I was assured that greater age would
> calm my fever....Nothing has worked. In other words, I
> don't improve, in futher words once a bum always a
> bum. I fear the disease is incurable."
>
>
>
> Was Steinbeck depressed? Or did something in him want
> to explore the country? To again see the common 
> people he wrote so eloquently about?
>
>
>
> Traveling, exploring, seeking. It is part of us. For
> many, the day to day life is enough.  A lover's hug.
> The warmth of the kitchen on a cold day. A beer or two
>  with a good friend.
>  All important things..all good. But something calls
> on us to seek more.
>
>
>
> What pulled our distant ancestors out of the savanah?
> Made Lewis and Clark explore  the land east of the
> Mississipi? Moved the ancient Polynesians explore the
> Pacific in canoes with only the stars to guide them?
>
>
>
> There had to be more than depression. Something
> calling to them. To explore. To seek.  To discover.
>
>
>
> In 2005 we can not be like our distant ancestors
> exploring a strange land.
>
> We can not look at a map and say "There be dragons".
>
>
>
> But we can explore what is new to us. Where every day
> there is a new sunset.  A new view on the ridge on a
> distant chain of mountains.
>
>
>
> Over the past six months or so, have been reading
> journals of Lewis and Clark.  Monday night I read a
> passage about their passage through the White Cliffs
> of Montana. Lewis wrote about his passage with this
> line: "As we passed , it seemed
>  those scenes of visionary enchantment would never
> have an end". 
>
>
>
> Maybe that is why some of us go to the wilderness.
> Those "scenes of visionary  enchantment" are what we
> need in our life. We also don't want them to end. We 
> somehow need to see and experience something that is
> bigger than us. It is our  spiritual fulfillment. Part
> of what makes us complete. 
>
>
>
> But a large part of why many of us do these wilderness
> pilgrimages is for the experiences,  the memories, the
> living of life to its most simple components.
>
>
>
> As I ponder why many of us seek out wilderness
> experience, my thoughts turn to a quote by Shackelton:
>
>
>
> "In memories we were rich. We had pierced the veneer 
> of outside things.... 
>
> We had seen God in His  splendours, heard the text
> that Nature renders. We had  reached the naked soul of
> man."
>
>
>
> In this harsh Antartic beauty, where they were reduced
> to eating their sled dogs to survive, Shackleton and
> his  crew still saw how what they were experiencing
> was  something special. In a smaller way, I think a
> long voyage in the wilderness seems to bring about the
> same types of
>
> feelings.  We will never have an epic journey such as 
> Shackleton. Most of us will never scale Everest or 
> Denali. We will not cross the contintenal divide
> before any Euro-Americans. We will not be able to look
> at a map
>
> and say "There be dragons".   But, at least in some
> way, by experiencing time in nature, we can at least
> glimpse
>  "God in His  splendors" and at least catch the
> whispers of the "text that Nature renders".   
>
> And after several months on a journey, most of us have
> reached and discovered our own soul, laid out bare. A
> long journey seems to be a form of catharsis.
> Stripping down the unessential, let us discovering
> what truly is important.  The end result is that we 
> do indeed wind up  rich in memories. Long after the
> blisters have healed  and the muscles are no longer
> sore, we remember that one special spot that will be
> forever etched in our  minds. 
>
>
>
> So, do we hike to self-medicate due to depression?
> Maybe.  But I think it is so much more. It is
> experiencing life. Seeking. Exploring. Discovering.
> Maybe not new lands..but lands that inspire us none
> the less. And perhaps most importantly, being able
>
> reach our own naked soul.
>
>
>
> And that is why I think many of us hike.
>
>
>
> Thankyou for reading this far. Maybe you find it a
> pile of steaming manure. Or maybe not. 
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ************************************************************
> The true harvest of my life is intangible.... a little stardust 
> caught, a portion of the rainbow I have clutched
> --Thoreau
> http://www.magnanti.com
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